Fair Game - Hardcover

Krich, Rochelle Majer; Malek, Doreen Owens

3.73

74 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 089296507X ISBN 13: 9780892965076

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1993

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"No cause for alarm", says Detective Jessie Drake on the evening news. "Be alert and wary of unfamiliar faces, lock your doors. We have several leads..". But as the newly appointed departmental spokesperson, Jessie knows full well that there are no leads. At least no sane leads. Just insane clues, left by a serial killer who is as playfully clever as he is cunningly dangerous. Five victims have been murdered thus far. Five different neighborhoods. The only link between them is the cause of death: each died by a lethal injection of curare. The police are stymied. Not since Spider Woman has anybody used curare, blow dart poison, as a murder weapon of choice. As the odd and mystifyingly obscure clues mount, something begins to click in Jessie's mind. Why do some of the bodies have bank deposit slips and money attached to them while one bears a parking ticket, of all things? Jessie can't quite put her finger on the connection. It's something from her childhood, something so familiar....Suddenly, Jessie figures it out, and she is stunned by the killer's twisted brilliance: the game he is playing is all too real. The gameboard is the city of Los Angeles and the winner claims his prize in blood.

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From the Author:

This is my absolute favorite of the contemporary novels I wrote during my early career. It's the story of a cynical police lieutenant who falls hard and helplessly for the emotionally damaged daughter of the Senator he's assigned to protect during a Presidential race. There's also a sad and touching subplot concerning a hired assassin and how he uses the woman who might have saved him. So ignore the dated details(everybody is smoking, nobody has a cell phone, the computers are all embryonic) and enjoy the tightly written romance as well as the secondary characters- the lieutenant's wise and wisecracking partner, the fragile and overlooked wife of the candidate, and the efficient assistant who runs the campaign like a Prussain general but falls for a hired killer. I have always been proud of this tale of love conquering all for a cop who has lost faith in relationships and the last woman on earth he would expect to restore it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

From the Inside Flap:

"SHH."
She put her finger to his lips, and he kissed it.

Ashley moved her hand and touched his face, run�ning her index finger over the hard line of his jaw.
"It's like a miracle to be able to touch you, after wanting it for so long," she whispered.
"You could always touch me," Tim said. "Any�time."
"If only it were that easy," she murmured, her eyes filling. "You'll lose your job if your captain finds out you were doing anything more than guarding me."
"What have I done?"
"Oh, Tim, don't be naive. This wasn't supposed to happen, and you know it." She bit her lip, her eyes searching his.
He reached for her and pulled her into his arms. When he kissed her, the satisfaction was so intense for both of them that they remained for a long time locked in a fierce embrace, like teenagers who are loath to lose contact for fear the magic may never happen again.
Then Tim finally lifted his head and Ashley buried her face against his shoulder.
"Come down to my room with me," he said huskily.

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